Ethics
by KlibanKatz
Summary: The crew initiates the ship's self-destruct mechanism when a Xeno escapes lab confinement. In pity, an ethics adviser releases a sentient being from holding. What is a Predator to do with a tiny pregnant human in the escape pod? It's a question of ethics.
1. Restricted Information

Anything previously copywritten or trademarked by the _Alien_, _Predator_, or related franchises is, obviously, not mine. OCs (which make up most, if not all of this story) are the intellectual property of Kliban Katz.

**NOTE:** For the record, apart from the Predators' terminology as found in the Perry novels, only the movies (Alien franchise, Predator franchise, and AvP franchise) will be regarded as cannon. All Yautjan culture and unknown biology will be speculated. In addition, though contradicted in the movies, let's say Predators have a visual spectrum similar to humans when not wearing their bios. Everyone else throws known information to the wayside, so it's my turn!

The narrator is in the 3rd person omniscient; however it centers on Aline and her thoughts. Italics represent a current thought. The point in the universe's timeline where this story begins is… let's say, unclear. In any case, it's not all that important to the plot as far as I'm concerned.

*** This is a story pilot. I'm curious about its reception and if there is incentive for me to continue this. Please review with your comments and suggestions. It will not continue otherwise, sorry! ***

* * *

"I can't possibly understand how I'm supposed to get through all of this paperwork before lunch. That only leaves me another two hours. Goddamnit," Aline muttered to herself, hand pressed against her face, eyeing a page of dense and unruly notes. She glanced at the two large stacks of similar papers waiting next to her keyboard. She would need at least an additional three hours to complete the stacks, especially since she had to first decipher what these "technicians" had scribbled. Aline replaced the paper she had in her hand into the larger stack and exchanged it for one from the smaller one. "Okay, at least Musashi writes neatly. I'll start here…" Leaning the limp paper up between her keyboard and monitor screen, Aline began to pound away at the keys with excellent precision.

The contract would only last another few months and then it would be back to Earth and to hell with all of the raw data compiling and monthly reports to the ethics department. _'Subject exhibits little change. Subject exhibits a minor alteration in sleeping pattern,' _it was all garbage to her. What her "highly educated" and "well-seasoned" superiors on the ship sought to accomplish mattered little to her. It was all dictated by The Company and was always sterile and unchanging. Her only concern was their choice for a means to this end. She was conscripted to be an ethics advisor and an advisor only. However, _in space, no one can hear your job description,_ Aline thought ruefully.

Having an ethics advisor on board was a rather new position to her understanding. The Company had experienced quite a few "incidents" in the past in which crew members had been "insubordinate regarding expedition and study criteria" rumored to often result in death and the mandatory new addition to the crew was a gesture of good faith in the words of The Company.

Aline admitted that she was a bit wet-behind-the-ears and technically she wasn't even supposed to have been signed to an expedition quite yet. Musashi had pushed for it, though, and the Weyland-Yutani Corporation was only posting advisors for aesthetic reasons. She was inexperienced, not naïve.

The reports had begun as being rather interesting, but quickly became the same regurgitated technical talk that shouted "no new developments." The facility had about four Xenomorph subjects that were confined to different areas of the lab. It was impressive, having a good deal of the creature's life-cycle stages frozen in time in stabilizing fluid, as well as one or two of the mobile full-sized slathering beasts, but the reports still grew stale. _Over so many ears of studying these things and they still know nothing of use. _The only risk with these beasts was a jailbreak, which would only happen if someone facilitated it, like in the past. Technically, this was the whole reason for her signing—to make sure this didn't occur. Aline sighed. _I guess it's good that I get to review all of their damned notes this way then._

"So, how goes the transcribing?" Musashi leaned over the back of her stool and eyed the computer screen expectantly.

"It's slow, hon. You really ought to tell your crew to be more concise and neat, if it's not too much to ask." Her eyes darted up and down from the page to the screen, fingers pounding away. A small smile escaped her lips.

"Glad to see we're all hard at work." He patted her on the shoulder absently and shuffled away.

Aline sighed.

She found it hard enough to get Musashi to step away from his studies long enough to have any real conversation anymore, but it seemed to actually be worsening as time went on. She adjusted her glasses. Even up until a month ago, he still managed to make time for the "needful things" of couple life, but now everything had come to a screeching halt, except for his need to research. From the outside looking in, she felt it was impossible to tell that they were even engaged anymore. She hoped there would still be something left in one another to want to marry when their contract was up in four months. Aline was grateful to have been assigned to his ship for her first run, though. She had little to worry about as she had complete faith in her fiancée and those he presided over as far as doing things by the book. She realized that she had stopped typing. Quickly, she resumed, picking up the pace.


	2. Elevated Clearance

Anything previously copywritten or trademarked by the _Alien_, _Predator_, or related franchises is, obviously, not mine. OCs (which make up most, if not all of this story) are the intellectual property of Kliban Katz.

The narrator is in the 3rd person omniscient; however it centers on Aline and her thoughts. Italics represent a current thought. The point in the universe's timeline where this story begins is… let's say, unclear. In any case, it's not all that important to the plot as far as I'm concerned.

*** This is STILL a story pilot. I'm curious about its reception and if there is incentive for me to continue this. Please review with your comments and suggestions. It will not continue otherwise, sorry! **NOTE: This story is currently on hold, at least until ATCL is completed! BUT, I _do _intend to continue this story!*****

* * *

Lunch came late, as it often did when paperwork of today's magnitude graced her desk. Aline dragged her feet to the nearest table with a familiar face in the small cafeteria. Over the months, the quality of the plastic used in the lunch trays began to show itself. Had the white plastic been any thinner, Aline would be able to see her hands through the tray. She stared at her rations as she sat down. They were a wonderful thing when starving, but what she wouldn't give for a decent, real steak.

Dr. Hryzkov sat adjacent to her at the stark white picnic-style table, her eyes seeming to brighten at the sight of Aline.

"Marlena, how goes the research? Those damned Xenos giving you any new data or do you have to wrestle every bit of it from their ugly little hands? I'm getting tired of recording the same shit. Might as well copy and paste," Aline poked her compressed meat gingerly with her fork. Dr. Hryzkov sighed deeply. It seemed everyone on the ship was suffering from some kind of depression.

"What would you advise I try? Shock therapy? That would never be permissible anymore. As though we needed to make the beasts any more aggressive anyhow," she mused, leaning her head on one hand and staring skyward. "If you want new and exciting, talk to one of the higher ups. No sense in complaining to a grunt like me. Dr. Yuugawa would be your real go to guy- he's the ringleader. Just bring it up during pillow talk or something."

"Ugh, don't even mention Musashi to me right now."

"Jesus, Aline, it's too early for couple's counseling for you two. Did something happen?" Marlena's eyes widened. She had noticed Dr. Yuugawa putting in extra hours in the lab, but never thought anything of it.

"He's a fucking robot. I'd have to bleed acid and screech to get him to have lunch with me. Even then, he'd probably just whip out his clipboard and start taking notes…" Aline leaned both of her elbows on the white table and pressed her face into her palms.

"Awe, don't feel bad, Ally," Marlena reached over the width of the table to give a feeble pat on the shoulder. "It must be that new specimen. It's got us all over-clocking ourselves a bit."

"What? A new specimen?"

"Yeah, the thing is amazing. About as ugly as they come, but he's as smart as a tack! Absolutely can't stand that Xeno in the chamber next to it." Marlena fiddled with the straw in her glass.

"…It's… not a bug?" Aline's eyebrows knitted. _If it isn't a bug, what is it? And how did it get on the ship without my knowledge?_ She suddenly wasn't interested in her mediocre lunch any longer.

"No, it's not." Marlena looked at her oddly. "It looks more," her pursed lips danced around her face, trying to find the right word. "humanoid than that. You know, some of the team actually speculates that it might be fully sentient." She seemed smug, as though it had been her sole discovery. "Didn't you see the report? You should have typed it."

"I didn't see anything like that." Her tone was becoming stern, her voice tensing up in her throat. "When did it arrive, Marlena?" Her eyes were burning.

"I'd say it's going on about two weeks since we received it. I wrote up the physical report myself. Oh my God, it should have been on your desk days ago."

"This goes against all protocol entirely. I should have been the _first _to have been notified given the situation. Not only will this look very bad for the team, but it will look worse for me if the specimen appears to have been compromised." Before Marlena could answer, Aline began again, "Fuck… I have to go—right now." She banged the table with her open palms as she got up from the bench, the flatware quivering from the impact, and tore out of the room. She could feel butterflies begin to beat around the walls of her belly. Her career had just begun—it couldn't end. If something unfortunate were to happen to that new creature, not only could it destroy The Company's PR image, but hers as well. And if things went badly for The Company, they would not hesitate to completely drive her career into the ground.

Aline arrived at the security station. It wasn't expressly meant to monitor the security system of the ship, but it did however monitor all of the temperature and pressure gauges on board as well as regulate clearances. It was conveniently placed in a corridor adjacent to the hallway leading to the labs and private quarters. If Musashi had passed by, Bernard would have seen him.

"Bern, where's Musashi?" She rested her hand stiffly on the desktop and pinched her sinuses with her free hand.

"You mean Dr. Yuugawa? He's in the lab running some kind of climate test. Geez, what's got you so fired up there? You think he's cheatin' on you with one of them slimy things?" He laughed quietly.

"I need to see that new specimen. Someone seems to be trying to keep me from doing the job I was actually hired for."

"Calm down, honny. Let me just pull somethin' up here." He began typing away, the green screen flashing and reflected off of his face as words flew by. "You know you can't get into the lab, hon. You have those red letters all over your badge for a reason. You have restricted clearance, seeing as how you're not a trained tech." He shook his head. He wasn't about to open another can of worms.

"Well then, I guess you're just have to fucking elevate my goddamn clearance, aren't you, Bern? I need to get in there now!" So much time had gone by. God only knew what was going on in there.

"No can do, Doc. Only Yuugawa can authorize a raise of clearance like that." He resumed typing, going about his business.

"And how do you suppose I'm going to even get that kind of authorization while he's in the middle of a study?" Her face was a mix of disgust and confusion. Was she the only person who was concerned about this whole situation?

Bernard raised his hands and shook his head. "It's out of my hands, sweets."

"Don't you give me that!" She was furious. Not only had information been withheld but now it seemed to her that there was a conscious effort to obstruct her duties. She yanked her badge from the clip on her lab coat pocket. "Lift the fucking restriction," She held it inches from his face. "Or when it comes time for my monthly review—you'll all be surprised to hear we're reentering orbit ahead of schedule."

Bernard looked little more than irritated. He was just the glorified maintenance man. If this escalated, he could simply say that he felt threatened as she held a syringe inches from his face. Or a penknife. It didn't matter—either would suffice. As he took the card from her, swiping it and editing the clearances, he swore Dr. Yuugawa ought to get a hold on her before he settled down with that one. She was too eager.

He handed the plastic card back to her with a dissatisfied look. He cleared his throat and swished his mouth side to side. Aline snatched the card up and darted off.

"No hard feelings, really," She called as she disappeared around the corner.


	3. Protocol

Anything previously copywritten or trademarked by the _Alien_, _Predator_, or related franchises is, obviously, not mine. OCs (which make up most, if not all of this story) are the intellectual property of Kliban Katz. The Japanese style 「quotation marks」contain text originally spoken in Japanese, translated and transliterated for your ease of reading.

The narrator is in the 3rd person omniscient; however it centers on Aline and her thoughts. Italics represent a current thought. The point in the universe's timeline where this story begins is… let's say, unclear. In any case, it's not all that important to the plot as far as I'm concerned.

**I wasn't going to release this, but you know I love you guys. You've been so well behaved while I asked you to wait!**

**~~I have taken another approach to integrating a second language as per your feedback. Please let me know what you think! The Japanese style ****「****quotation marks****」****contain text originally spoken in Japanese, translated and transliterated for your ease of reading. Sometimes I forget that others get absolutely nothing out of these "squiggles" and I suppose my narration did not do much for the clarity of the foreign text, sorry!~~**

*** I suppose by now I am obligated to complete this story, which is great. I will work on this as much as I can, but please understand that I have undertaken multiple projects in conjunction with my already busy academic schedule. Please review with your comments and suggestions (Ex: How do you feel about how I have approached introducing a second language?). I will do my best to accommodate you guys! ***

* * *

Aline tried to persuade herself that she wasn't overreacting. If the subjects had all remained bugs there wouldn't have been any discrepancies. Then she would have only needed to monitor crew members for signs of inconsistency and write the same garbage reports to headquarters every month. It would have been one thing if they had a new Xeno dropped off, but this was a different creature _entirely_—an _unknown_ creature. The only way it could have gotten on the ship and into the labs, especially if it was as impressive as Marlena had said, was if the team consciously tried to hide it from her. For what purpose? She had been allowed to ship out ahead of time and she would ensure that The Company wouldn't find it to have been a mistake.

The tinted plate glass doors that separated the lab from main complex seemed almost intimidating in how they ran the full length of the wall before her. Aline took a deep breath and tightened her tawny ponytail. There was a faint _swoosh_ sound and a beep of approval as she swiped her card through the cardreader. At that, the doors glided apart and she got her first glimpse of the ship's inner specimen holding chamber, unobscured by the rose-colored glass.

Curiosity abounded as she took quick glances in all directions. In every corner there seemed to be something new and strange. Murky liquids stood at attention in narrow test tubes. Strange, foul-smelling potions boiled in beakers atop burners. What had come to be referred to as "facehuggers" in casual conversation looked like fruit inside pale Jell-o within the large glass cylinders. The lab in all its wonder nearly caused Aline to forget her original intention. She could see a couple of technicians scribbling something down on their clipboards as they looked thoughtfully at one of the larger bugs, but neither of them was the doctor she was looking for. No, Dr. Yuugata was further down the boxcar-shaped laboratory hunched over a counter with some samples.

"Musashi!" Aline began to jog hurriedly down the length of the room. She could feel the dynamics of the room shift as everyone's attentions changed from their tasks at hand. All he could do was look up in her direction, his face plastered with utter surprise. He wondered how she could have possibly gotten in here without clearance.

She closed the space between them. "What where you thinking that you thought you should hide it from me?" She said in a voice that was not quite a shout, but still had a magnitude that seemed most unnatural. "You're violating every protocol in the book!"

「Be quiet.」He reprimanded her like a father to his child. 「Do you want them all to hear you? The bugs, too? Really, what are you thinking? Now, you tell me what you're doing here—quickly and quietly.」She felt as though he was being unnecessarily harsh. She was upset and felt justified for it. She hadn't been trying to make a scene for everyone to hear, but now Aline felt overwhelmingly embarrassed. He had a way of doing that to her. She could feel everyone else's attention shift back to their studies. She had been handled.

"You hid it from me. The new specimen. How dare you hide it—it could cost me my job!" After raising her voice a second time she knitted her eyebrows, realizing she had done it again. She shifted her field of vision awkwardly to the side.

"Shh…," he spat. "You don't even know what it is. No, I haven't hid it. It's been in holding. We haven't commenced any testing on the creature as of yet, so there was no need to alert you," he whispered, minding the distinct sound of each consonant.

"No need?" Musashi shot her another look for her to watch her volume. "It is my responsibility to see to it that humane treatment is practiced on all specimens with regard to the guide set by the Board. Having a creature that has capabilities on the level of human functionality that is mistreated or overlooked will look very—"

"Who said the beast was on par with human functionality? It's clearly not." He was bluffing when he could and now he was even lying. He couldn't tell her his division gave him special instructions. It would be an immensely sticky situation if the independently funded "safety patrol" got a hold of any unethical goings on in Weyland-Yutani. Especially since the Company willfully contracted these new advisors. "He's just as intelligent as the cockroaches. So, they'll all get the lab rat treatment, not to worry." Calling it a "he" alone should have set off a red flag for Aline. The team acted like the Xenomorphs lacked a sex, when they clearly too were all male, save the absent queen. It should have been clear that this one was different.

"I want to see it, and you're going to show me, or we're going to be packing up this circus quite quickly, Director." No one called Dr. Yuugata by his title. Her words had been carefully chosen for her purpose.

「My God…,」he sighed and braced his forehead with his hands. "Fine."


	4. Encounter Summary

Anything previously copywritten or trademarked by the _Alien_, _Predator_, or related franchises is, obviously, not mine. OCs (which make up most, if not all of this story) are the intellectual property of Kliban Katz. The Japanese style 「quotation marks」contain text originally spoken in Japanese, translated and transliterated for your ease of reading.

The narrator is in the 3rd person omniscient; however it centers on Aline and her thoughts. Italics represent a current thought. The point in the universe's timeline where this story begins is… let's say, unclear. In any case, it's not all that important to the plot as far as I'm concerned.

* * *

Aline strode down the boxcar-shaped laboratory with new vigor, keeping in step with Dr. Yuugata who led her along the hall. She pushed her hands into her crisp lab coat pockets and swung them forward, with almost girlish confidence.

As the party neared a heavy-looking steel door, each of their paces substantially slowed, signaling that they had reached their destination. The door was impressive, solid, and bare aside from a tiny, almost vestigial peephole window, but above all it looked cold.

Near the door was a card reader and keypad, affixed to the wall. _A__combination__lock__—__I__can__see__why._ She could hear the reader beep affirmatively as Musashi swiped his card. He peered over his shoulder to glance at Aline, at which point she made it her business to direct her attention elsewhere. When he once again turned his back to her, her eyes flew back towards the keypad, trying her best to remain inconspicuous. She watched him press his index finger first to the zero, then the three, the two, and finally the five. _March__25__th__,_ she thought. She could feel her heart soften. She mused that perhaps Dr. Yuugata was only preoccupied and not necessarily drifting from her. After all, their engagement anniversary was his security password.

The console beeped satisfactorily once again and an audible sound, a sound similar to that of an airlock releasing, signaled the opening of the steel slab doors. The doors pulled apart from themselves, into the wall, revealing a world of sterilized, streamlined surfaces. The large showcase glass windows along one side made the hall bear an odd resemblance to a pet shop.

"This is where we keep the big bugs," Dr. Yuugata stated. Using the inflection in his voice, he could even make layman's terms sound technical. "You go and take a look at that one." He pointed to the third window. 「I don't know where the The Company found this one. When we received it, it already looked like a veteran soldier. His hide bore a lot of lacerations. Now they are just old scars.」

Aline had not understood everything that was just said to her, but she approached the window she was directed to. In fact, that happened more often than she liked to admit.

"What was that?"

"It has many scars. We found it that way." Musashi had made it concise for her.

"Oh," she said, a child in wonder. Now she could see the showcase windows were double-paned and reinforced with a protective wire mesh. At first she didn't see it, but slowly, the beast shifted itself into an erect posture. Suddenly, it could see her, too, and bore its external teeth, curling back its lips across its dripping jowls. It seemed to be unreasonably angry with her. Perhaps it was the white coat; it identified her as "one of them," though the creature had never encountered her before. Aline shuddered momentarily. "I don't think it's happy to see me."

"Decidedly not." His hands clasped tightly together, the director made motion to fall back towards the entrance.

The creature seemed to pull up into itself in the center of the chamber, perhaps trying to conceal its soft spots where its natural chitin armor was not present. As it recoiled into itself, Aline could see fresh, fluorescent burn marks across its belly.

"That abdominal scarring looks rather _recent_," Aline stated, matter-of-factly, and turned her attention towards Musashi, who had been creeping towards the door.

He met her eyes across several feet and sputtered, "It only appears so. If you notice, there are other instances of scarring elsewhere which exhibit the same color."

"Then, that too, could be recent scarring." Aline looked at him with a narrow gaze, suddenly irritated. Had they been abusing their specimens in secret?

"Different types of trauma render different hues. That is all. Have you found anything in reports that would explain these scars?" He paused for a moment, baiting her response.

He continued, "No. As such, they were not wrought by my technicians."

Aline was at a loss for words. True, the scarring was questionable and quite prominent, but she was not educated in such complexities of this alien creature. She had encountered people who had scarring, sometimes pink and sometimes a contrasting white, but the same could not be said for her experience with Xenomorphs. It was plausible to believe that all of the scarring had been preexisting, and how foolish she would look if she pressed the issue only to be found wrong. It was easier and sounder to take Musashi's word. After all, why would she not want to believe him?

"Are you ready to go," Musashi broke her silence,「or do you still feel the need to be gawking at these damned bugs?」

Aline quickly remembered her purpose. "No, no, no! I have yet to see what I've come here for." She spoke in a manner which suggested she had bolted her feet to the laboratory floor. "I'm not leaving until you show me that new specimen."

Musashi let out an audible sigh. He took a deep breath, and with a deliberate swallow, he flushed the irate look from his face. "Let us go to his cell, then." He tore his hand from the key card panel, looking pained, and once again started down the hall.

"_His_?" Aline breathed. This time, Musashi's pronoun use caught her attention.

"Him. It. It is the same." He didn't even break his stride, as though it was a common mistake. She followed him down the hall. "Wait here," he instructed, several feet from a window that looked as though it had been further reinforced. Aline obeyed; she always saw it fit to listen when he gave an order, but she still squinted her eyes, trying her best at a preemptive glance of the creature from her skewed angle.

As Musashi neared the glass, reinforced with vertical steel safety bars on the observing side, Aline saw something hulking and massive make a mad dash for the window. Her heart momentarily skipped a beat, but the unflinching director made motion for her to come nearer to the window, chuckling to himself.

Aline's heart was in her throat as she took bounding steps towards the glass. The creature was bellowing loud, angrily, and with what might have sounded like a lust for vengeance. From her angle it looked as thought the beast had been damaged somehow, as several of his teeth jutted out of its mouth in unnatural directions.

As she finally neared the glass, Aline could see that she'd been mistaken. The creature's teeth turned out to be more likened to tusks, which stood at attention at the corners of its mouth in sets of two. It roared at the sight of them, the splaying of its tusks revealing a smaller, daintier inner mouth, which, apart from being lined with tiny incisors, appeared analogous to a rather interesting part of the female anatomy.

"It looks… rather pissed off," Aline remarked as she rethought her position in relation to the viewing window.

"Terrible temperament. And—"

"And those tusks…" Her mouth hung open in awe.

"We tend to regard them as mandibles," Musashi corrected. "We're not sure at the moment what their purpose is," he took a deep breath, "apart from perhaps some type of primitive communication."

"Like ape sign language?"

"No, hardly. Like wolves howling." He was quick to answer. To link these beasts to anything remotely sentient would toss Aline back into her mantra about "protocol" which the director knew he could not have.

"Oh, I see." She absently reached beneath her hair to scratch her ear, avoiding eye contact with the huffing creature. Without looking, she could still feel its eyes on them, staring coldly, angrily, with its flared tusks scratching at the reinforced glass. "What do you plan to do with it?"

"We are still running preliminary testing at the moment. When that reaches its conclusion, we will have a better idea."

Aline's gaze crept upward towards the steel bars. Sheepishly her view climbed the height of the wall and peered in through the window where instant eye contact was made. Perhaps she could become used to looking in on the lab bugs or the curious organisms in the test tubes, but it was totally a different case when the specimen acknowledged her.

Aline couldn't break her gaze away. The pallid blue of his face made his amber eyes all the more striking.

"It's barbaric, really." Musashi's words severed Aline's bond. "We had to fasten its wrists to keep it from tearing the place down. Measurable brute force usually means that brain function is minimal, though. At least it's not smart," the doctor confided, adjusting his collar.

The creature began to stalk away from the window, which allowed her to get a better view of the creature and its bonds. Its wrists were bound by what looked like wrapped steel cables in messy, plentiful knots behind its back. Something seemed wrong here to Aline. The creature had been determined to be primitive and non-sentient as far as Musashi's team had seen, but they tied him up as though they expected him to try to pick the locks. It seemed angry, as though defied, and did not exhibit the ferocious desperation of a wolf in a snare. He had massive amounts of scarring, but not everywhere.

"These markings are strange. Why do the scars suddenly stop at that point on his chest?" Aline tried to point at the defining line, but with the creature constantly changing directions, placing her finger over the right part of the glass was a challenge.

Musashi hesitated, as though he could not see what she was explaining.

"It had some kind of protection over it when we brought it in. It's in holding. We decided leaving it on would only impede our studies."

"Like…armor?" Her head and its mess of hair flung itself nearly ninety degrees on its axis.

"It is hard to… describe. You will see in the reports to follow." He replied, closing the discussion. Musashi began to inch away from the observation window, hoping to signal to Aline that it was time to leave. She however had already turned her attention back to the creature in holding.

She stared intently, trying to seek out its eyes in the mess of black tentacles that obscured her view. It didn't take long before she caught its attention, and then suddenly wished she hadn't. With purpose, it marched directly up to the window and pressed the side of its toothed face against the double paned glass. Aline's heart leaped into her throat and she took a giant step backward. It eyed her much like a puppy in a pet shop would, seeking something in the eyes of a prospective owner. Its hot breath fogged the glass as it took rapid breaths in succession. Aline wondered if it tasted with its tongue or something similar. The behavior could only make her think that he was trying to taste the air through the glass. She took a careful step forward, reaching up to touch the glass with the tips of her fingers. She began to feel more confident and drew her entire body nearer to the glass…

An alien shout rung through the chamber, as the giant beast splayed his tusks and shook the glass with his bellowing cry.

Aline had recoiled. She felt tiny, small, and frightened. Her hands and arms were all twisted up in one another, crowding her face and trying to stifle her own cry.

"I really need to get back to recording my observations."

Aline nodded rapidly and gingerly stepped backward and away from the window until she was just near the door. Musashi placed one arm under hers to guide her out of the chamber.

「You won't want to come back here again. At least that is something certain in this uncertain place.」


End file.
